READINGS for 2006-06-01

I was waiting for our nurse at the infirmary to check my BP when a call came for me. In truth, ever since I received the call that my husband had an attack, and that my husband would be operated again on the brain, and that we needed things to buy, the rent for the renti, injectible insulin, etc., I had this call ?phobia,? especially when I?m on the third floor of the new building where my dorm is. I was so shocked to hear that the nurse should be with me and not leave me for the moment. No one among our admin officers wanted to talk: Ma?am Maranon, Ma?am Heny Uy, especially Supt IV, Atty Rachel D. Ruelo, including the rest of the people there. Their eyes were all cast on me. My God! What could have happened to my husband?! I told to myself. ?I love you Beth, Jesus loves you. Moi is with the Lord now.? Mommy Babes is always the first to give me news about Moises. My BP became 200/100. I heard Atty. Ruelo say, ?Just hold on. God will take care of him. God will take care of you.? Beth C.

REFLECTIONAre you getting weak because of the hardships you face in life? Be glad at all times because the Lord will carry you!

Thank you, My God. I would not be able to hold on if not for Your strength.

One piece of wisdom that is important when fighting a war is that one should know the weakness of the enemy. Here Paul exploits the fact that the Pharisees and the Sadducees have a few doctrinal differences. He uses them to divide the two and thus deflect attention from himself. We should also know the enemy that we are fighting, whether it is sin or something else. In this way we will be better able to confront it.

30 The next day, wishing to determine the truth about why he was being accused by the Jews, he freed him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin to convene. Then he brought Paul down and made him stand before them. 23: 6 Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, ?My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.? 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group became divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three. 9 A great uproar occurred, and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party stood up and sharply argued, ?We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?? 10 The dispute was so serious that the commander, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, ordered his troops to go down and rescue him from their midst and take him into the compound. 11 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, ?Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.?

P S A L M

Psalm 16:1-2 and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

R: Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.

1 Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge; 2 I say to the LORD, ?My Lord are you. 5 O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.? (R) 7 I bless the LORD who counsels me; even in the night my heart exhorts me. 8 I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. (R) 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; 10 because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. (R) 11 You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. (R)G O S P E L

John 17:20-26

Jesus prays for His disciples because he knows that there are difficult times ahead for them. They will struggle to be faithful and so they need all the prayers, grace and help that they can get. It is good for us to remember that we are not on this journey alone. Not only do we have those around us to support us, but Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit to be with us until the end of time. Let us follow His will with a confidence that comes from knowing this truth.

20 ?I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.?

my reflectionsthink: What sins, fears and weaknesses are you not confronting? Know your enemy.

During one of my foreign trips to preach at a retreat, I befriended a Filipino professor who teaches English in a university abroad. He invited me to join him for dinner, and he treated me to his version of home-cooked ?adobo.? It was a welcome treat for me by then, I was ?nauseated? with the foreign food I had been enduring since my arrival in that country. Over dinner, he shared how much he missed his wife and two children whom he had left behind in Manila. Every night he would take the time to pray for them ? and to pray with them. I perfectly understood what ?praying for? means. What I could not understand was how every evening he could ?pray with? his family who was in Manila. At that moment, he played for me a voice tape of his wife and children praying the Rosary. This was his well-kept secret! Love, indeed, reaches out to the beloved ? across distances ? and across time gaps. I am not a stranger, for instance, to the tales of many widows or widowers who continue to talk and be intimate with their departed partners in life ? as though these beloved persons were still near them! The Gospel reading today ? an excerpt from the ?Farewell Discourse? of Jesus during His last supper ? underlines for us that Jesus? love and concern reaches out even farther. He reaches out to the disciples whom He would leave behind. His thoughts and prayers also reach out to disciples who are yet to come after Him in time. For all of these, He prays for unity and for the eternal Providence of God the Father. Victorious, and now seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, the Lord Jesus remains committed to the Church, the body of believers, that struggles to follow Him until the end of time. Fr. Domie G.

REFLECTION QUESTION:A good number of couples today are so affected by the secular saying: ?Out of sight, out of touch.? No wonder many marriages end up in infidelities just because of the physical absence of the other party. Can you sustain a relationship even with the prolonged absence of the other?

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